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Bill
William "Bill" Overbeck is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. He is a Vietnam veteran who served in the US Army 1st Special Forces Group, and is also noticeably the oldest of the group. In official media, he is usually seen wielding the Assault Rifle, probably to complement his back story. He often has a lit cigarette in his mouth that only extinguishes when he dies. Bill is killed sometime prior to the events of Left 4 Dead 2's The Passing in The Sacrifice, when he sacrificed himself to raise the bridge for the other three Survivors. According to The Sacrifice's comic, Bill died protecting the other Survivors from three simultaneous Tanks. Bill's facial features are portrayed by Bernard Fouquet and he is voiced by Jim French. Official Description Relationships with other Survivors Out of the other three Survivors, Bill stands out most prominently as the leader of the group. * Francis: Bill appears to have some sort of rivalry with Francis, though the reason for this is unknown. It's possible that Bill and Francis knew each other prior to the outbreak, and Francis's in-comic comment about knowing Bill the past few weeks suggests this too. Another cause could be Francis's supposed hatred of the military (since Bill was once a soldier), or simply Francis's gruff personality rubs Bill the wrong way. Alternatively, what is said could simply be friendly teasing between the two. In the Sacrifice comic, while Bill still doesn't particularly get along with Francis, he considers Francis as 'his own', and will desert any newcomer if they have a chance of endangering his group. When Bill leaves the group to sacrifice himself and does not return, Francis is the first to attempt to go down to bring him back, but is stopped by Zoey as the reality of the situation sinks in, and they mourn for his death. In The Passing, Francis is sometimes not happy that they have to lower the bridge, since it was due to Bill's efforts that it was raised in the first placedlc1_c6m1_initialmeeting32.wavdlc1_c6m3_finalechat45.wav. Also, Francis may be heard saying that they lost a good man getting the bridge up, showing he may secretly respect Bill. * Louis: As far as the Survivors' relationships go, Louis and Bill do not have much evidence hinting towards each other's dispositions. Bill will, however, seem genuinely upset to see Louis die. ("Louis didn't make it... Agh, Christ!") Oddly enough, this is in contrast to how unsympathetic Bill can be when Louis is incapacitated outside of the safe room. ("How well do you really know Louis?") However, he'll usually follow this by saying he was joking. In the Sacrifice comic, Bill is able to see when Louis is planning something (such as ramming a jeep leaking gasoline into a Tank) and react according, and shows surprise at his intuitive thinking. Similar to how he treats Francis, Bill prioritizes the safety of Louis as one of his group above others, even if it means their deaths. In The Passing, Louis is sad that Bill is gone, but is resolved more than ever to stay with Francis and Zoey. When killing a Tank, Louis may proclaim the kill in Bill's name for revengedlc1_killfinaltank01. * Zoey: The relationship between Bill and Zoey is fairly strong. Bill is openly sorrowful when Zoey is killed. ("Aghh...not [tearing up] Zoey.") When Zoey is incapacitated on the other side of the safe room, Bill verbally refuses to leave her behind. ("Zoey can't stay out there! We have to help her." and "I can't leave Zoey out there!"). Bill seems to view her as a daughter or granddaughter figure. This is strengthened in part one of "The Sacrifice" comic as Zoey is seen resting closest to Bill on the evacuation vehicle, and in that he mentions her name first when he's reflecting on sacrificing himself to save the others. To further illustrate this, he attacks a soldier who hits Zoey with his gun when demanding she show the doctor her wound, and when she reflects on how her parents died, she hugs Bill, finding comfort in his arms. Their relationship is strained deeply in The Sacrifice comic when he refuses to stop the train to allow the other newer Survivors onboard due to his need to protect his group, of which Zoey is a part of. Later on, Bill sacrifices himself to save the other Survivors, leaving Zoey with sadness, as they never really made up prior to their separation. She takes up Bill's conviction to "look after their own" in his place. In The Passing, if Louis and Francis joke about Bill, Zoey may look away or appear very sad, hinting that she is the one who misses him the most. Unfortunately, Bill did not live long enough to meet the Survivors of Left 4 Dead 2, although Francis and Louis joke that Bill probably would have shot Nick within a very short time frame due to his personality. Rochelle shows understanding and sympathy to Bill's death in certain lines to the original Survivors. Both Coach and Nick have multiple lines regarding the loss of Bill if his death is mentioned. Quotes and Captions See: Bill/Quotes and Captions Notes * On the poster for Dead Air, his beret has a blue star bordered U.S. Army General Service beret flash on it, not the yellow U.S. Army 1st Special Forces Group beret flash as it appears in-game and on the rest of the posters. It is also the only poster in which he isn't smoking his trademark cigarette. * Jim French, who voices Bill in Left 4 Dead, also voiced Father Grigori from Half-Life 2 and The Fisherman from Half-Life 2 Lost Coast. * Bill was a "narrator" in the cut intros of the campaigns. * Bill is always seen smoking a cigarette. Even when he is dead, it manages to stay in his mouth. In The Passing, however, his cigarette is missing from his corpse. When he dies in-game, it is no longer lit; the only exception is during the opening scene, where he doesn't light the cigarette until the end. * Bill will occasionally comment with a rebellious "What a load of horseshit," to 'No Smoking' signs that the Survivors encounter during the campaigns, perhaps as a joke to himself. * Bill served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War. U.S. Special Forces involvement in the war that ended in 1972, so the latest Bill could have been there would have been in 1972. Hence, if the game occurs in 2009, Bill is at least in his sixties or older. * Bill believes that the Survivors may become infected at any second. In the earlier versions, seen in cut lines, he was close to being paranoid about the fact they may be infected, while the virus is mutating in their bodies. Currently, the closest Bill comes to mentioning anything about themselves regarding the Infection is in No Mercy, where one of his possible lines involves the uncomfortable topic of dealing with him in the event he starts to turn.Generic33.wav * Bill is currently the only Survivor with a confirmed last name. "Overbeck" can be found on his military jacket. * Bill's original issue combat jacket bears no badges of rank (or suggestion that they might once have been sewn on and then removed). This suggests that, as a enlisted man, Bill did not achieve even the most basic step up in promotion. Such a situation would be most unusual for a long-service soldier during the Vietnam War period: especially one with time served in the Special Forces. * Despite being the most experienced combatant in the group, Bill comes up strangely short as a squad leader: he has imparted very little knowledge of even the basic combat drills to his companions and at times he passively defers to their opinions and directives about what to do next (e.g. Zoey: "Unless someone has a better plan, I say we..."). * When using a third-person mod or cheat (only for computer), one can see that Bill has a severe limp when he is at critical health. The other Survivors also stagger, but this is further proof that he injured his right leg in his line of work at some point. * Pre-orders for Left 4 Dead 2 would give Team Fortress 2 owners Bill's Hat as a unique, in-game item. It appears as a brown or dark blue beret (its subtitle is "Level 10 Veteran's Beret). The back-story behind this is that Bill's hat fell off a table and into another dimension, landing in the Team Fortress 2 universe. * Bill is the only character to not gain any new lines in the Crash Course DLC, as Valve was unable to contact voice actor Jim French in time for him to record new lines. Due to Bill's death prior to The Passing DLC, he does not have any new lines there either. * In the very first trailer of Left 4 Dead, Bill is killed by the early version of the Smoker, who claws him to death from behind. * In the game files, Bill is called "namvet", referring to 'Vietnam veteran'. * It is hinted that Bill may have had previous contact with the Witch because of the slashes in the back of his jacket; and, in the intro, he tells Zoey to turn off her flashlight when he notices the crying is coming from a Witch. However, this may be because he saw her claws or her general inhuman appearance. * If one uses transformation console commands on Bill to turn him into a different Survivor, he/she would see that Bill possess a unique facial animation. The right side of his mouth tends to be raised, almost as if he is smiling (probably due to his cigarette) and his brows are constantly lowered. * There is an odd glitch that sometimes occurs when Bill is shot by Francis. He will scold Francis almost instantly instead of a second after being shot. This has caused some strange, yet humorous, situations where he can scold Francis while falling to the ground incapacitated or when he is killed by Francis (his mouth won't move since he's already dead). ** It turns out that the glitch is in Francis instead of Bill. When the glitch occurs, one can see (as a different Survivor or in third-person view) that Francis' head and mouth move, which is in sync with Bill's words. When shooting Bill from a distance, the Francis player can hear Bill's scolding clearly, as if Francis was speaking with Bill's voice. Francis also displayed Bill's unique facial animation. Using one of Francis's voice commands while shooting Bill will cause the friendly fire quotes to play properly. ** An easy way to see this is by selecting Francis, aiming at Bill, then switching into third person shoulder mode and setting "cam_idealyaw" to something around 100 to 150. * Bill could possibly have been a resident of the city of Fairfield before the Infection, judging by his knowledge of the city and certain places, such as the Red Line Subway and Mercy Hospital. * Bill is the only main Survivor to canonically die within the story so far. * Bill is rather protective towards his fellow Survivors, as evidence shows he saved Francis from a Tank and nearly got killed doing so. He also gave his life in order for Zoey, Francis and Louis to continue to survive and raise the bridge (an event before The Passing). * If one were to reverse the Midnight Riders song "Save Me Some Sugar" from 2:08 - 2:14, they would find that what sounded like gibberish before is actually the lead singer chanting "Bill is dead", a possible reference to the "Paul is dead" hoax of the 60's. * Bill has a model for his death position in The Passing's pak01_dir.vpk, the textures and model files also exist in the pak02_dir.vpk in the default Left 4 Dead 2's left4dead2 folder, with the only difference is that it has his animations and model files with "survivor_namvet" properly spelled. This may have been left in for the community to use for modding purposes or for future DLCs like The Sacrifice. * Bill was voted the third most popular survivor in Left 4 Dead 2's week 21 poll. * In the comic, Bill is seen using a weapon which looks like an AK-47. However, this weapon is not available in Left 4 Dead. * Valve created an achievement for Bill in The Sacrifice where players are awarded the Kill Bill achievement if Bill performs The Sacrifice. This is a nod to Bill dying in the storyline. This is the only achievement in either Left 4 Dead game where it is tied to a specific character. The achievement name is also a reference to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series. * Bill smokes Romero brand cigarettes, as seen in The Sacrifice trailer. This is a nod to director George A. Romero. * Bill appears as "namvet" in the game program. He has 26 facial expressions, the highest of any original Survivor. 19 of these are unique to his character shock, angry battle, hurt, fear 1-2-3, angry 1, shock dialogue, hurt dialogue, hurt 2 dialogue, happy dialogue, evil smile, eh [sic, smile 2, awe 1, awe 2, sarcastic 1, sarcastic 2]. He shares anger 3, gruff dialogue with Francis; happy with Zoey; and concerned dialogue and optimistic dialogue with Louis and Francis. None of his facial expressions are shared exclusively with Louis. * During The Sacrifice's finale, if a Survivor, other than Bill, is being sacrificed, Bill may break the fourth wall by stating that it wasn't supposed to be him/her. * 2 days after the first infection Bill was in the veterans hospital waiting for an operation, however when the operation was about to start a nurse got infected and killed the surgeon before he could operate Bill. This may be the reason he sacrifiaced himself because without the operation he was going to die anyway. * In the Sacrifice Bill's quote "You know who runs around filling things up with gas? Idiots." is likely referencing the survivors in the second game, who have to fuel both the stock car from the Atrium, and the generator from the Port. Gallery File:Bills.jpg|Head shot of Bill. File:Picture1.jpg|Concept art of beta Bill. File:Bill-survivors-alley-1920-2.jpg|Bill's appearance during initial game development. File:Bill deceased.jpg|Bill's final resting place, as seen in the final chapter of The Passing File:Bernard 005.JPG|Bill's face model, Bernard Fouquet. jim_french.jpg|Jim French, Bill's voice actor. File:BillComicDead.jpg|Bill as he appears in the first few panels of the Sacrifice comic. Bill.JPG|Bill as seen in The Sacrifice trailer. sacrifce 2.JPG|Bill about to fight three Tanks in the Sacrifice trailer. References Category:The Survivors Category:Left 4 Dead